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// A Homemade Record 
// Story: A Homemade Record 
// by Cherry Frosting 
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    Vinyl came into Brazen Beats with a grin of her face and a twinkle in her eyes. She was wearing a pack over her back, and you could see wrinkled papers peeking out of the top. She marched right up to the counter where her old friend, Lyra, was counting sales. 
“DJ Pon-3 in the house!” Vinyl said, holding up her hoof.
Lyra laughed before meeting her hoof with the DJ. “Brohoof man. What brings you to the shop today?” A light pink glow dusted Vinyl’s cheeks, but she just grinned wider. “Oh? Is this about Octavia?” 
Vinyl nodded, her cheeks fading. “I’ve told you everything that’s happened when we’ve hung out. But I want to tell Tavi how I feel about her.”
“That makes sense, but what are you doing here?” Lyra smirked and held back chuckles, “Do you want to serenade her?” 
“Serenade, uh…” Vinyl looked embarrassed, and blushed again. “What’s serenading?”
Lyra’s eyebrows went up, “You were considering it weren’t you.”
“... You caught me.” The sea-foam colored mare burst out laughing, almost falling over. “Maybe I was! But, ah, come on Lyra! I figured out it was stupid and pulled the plug quick enough!”
Lyra just kept laughing, “The amazing… DJ Pon-3… serenading! That would have been… hilarious!”
Vinyl started shaking as well, “It seems you find it pretty funny already.” 
“Ah, yeah.” She wiped gathering tears from her eyes and responded. “So, after you came to your senses, what did you decide to do?”
Vinyl looked over her shoulder, then leaned over the desk. “Here, I’ll tell you,” She whispered.
“Why the secret?” Lyra asked, but she flicked her ear and listened none the less… “That’s what you want?” Vinyl nodded. 
Lyra smiled at her friend. “You love her, don’t you?”
Vinyl nodded once more. “I do, and I just want her to know it.” Then she grinned as wide as she could, “So let’s get the music started!”
Vinyl was pushed into the store’s back room, clutching a record disc with her magic, a few minutes later. “Lyra! I can’t do this on my own! These songs require at least two instruments!”
“I’ve seen you play five instruments at once,” Lyra said from the door, ‘Besides, Octavia will like it better if it’s just you playing. I’ll see you when you’re done.” Then she closed the door.
Vinyl blinked. “Yup!” She smirked. “Tavi’s gonna’ love this!” Then the white mare turned around and said, “Let’s get started!”
The room was filled with multiple instruments. There was a piano, a clarinet, an alto saxophone, a baritone saxophone, a B♭ clarinet, a french horn, a trumpet, a violin, a bass, and even a cello. There were filing cabinets in the back filled with tons of sheet music, and stands littered the room. In a nearby corner there was a record carver.
Vinyl took a deep breath and sat at the piano seat. She levitated the carver and a violin over to her, and pulled one of the crumpled sheets of magic out, and another, and another. She brought out two songs worth of paper, then hesitated. There was one more song in the bag. I couldn’t play this last time I tried, but it would mean so much to Tavi… I want her to be happy when she listens to this. Making up her mind, Vinyl picked up the music with her hooves and read it through. She bit her lip, but set it on the stand with the other pages.
“Okay Vinyl!” The mare said, “Song one: Far Away.” She pulled up the violin, and set the record on the carver. After Vinyl focused her attention on the piano and violin, she activated her magic, and then began playing.

♪ ♪ ♪

Octavia Melody was walking to her friend’s apartment that night after she had finished work. She had had a rough day,and she was hesitant to go to Vinyl’s house. Last time she had been with her, her cheeks had begun to redden half way through the day. And the time before that she pretended she was ill after the same thing happened, but... It’s not like I like that lump! She told herself, I mean, she’s useless, can’t keep her own house clean, couldn’t play a respectable song for the life of her, is way too loud... Octavia stopped talking to herself as the building came into view.
She made it to the door and saw a note on the doormat.
Yo, I had to hop in the shower. You can come in, Tavi. There’s a record on the couch you can listen to.
A hoof met Octavia’s face as she shook her head in exasperation. Why couldn’t the mare wait until she was there at least. She began to blush for a moment, but shook her head quickly.
She reached down under the mat for Vinyl’s spare key and found it in an instant. After the door unlocked, she stepped inside, and gasped. The room was clean. There weren’t leftover pizza boxes on the floor, or any cans of soda on the table. It even looked like the unicorn had swept. Is she expecting the Princess to come over? This room is almost spotless!True to the letter, though, a brand new record was sitting on one of the couch cushions.
Having nothing else to do, Octavia picked it up and examined it. The center of the disc was plain pink, almost perfectly matching her own bow tie. There weren’t any words on the package or the disc itself that would tell her what was recorded, the only way to figure that out would be to play it. Why not? Octavia thought. She walked over to record-player and set it in.
At first there was just the standard crackling of a record
Then the song started. It started out of nowhere, with a piano starting on it’s own. It began with a melody of quarter notes and eighth notes, loud and clear. It was in a high pitch and reminded Octavia of the night sky. Then, a violin joined in with the background. It added so much depth, and, even though it had just started, tears began to form in her eyes. The music was brought fully together with the sound of tinkling. Stars were the only thing she could see in the music, as bright and clear as a piece Beethooven might have written. It ended the same way it had started. A piano playing quarter and eighth notes, just slowed down.
Octavia blinked the tears out of her eyes during the silence that ensued, wondering how Vinyl had come across such wonderful music. And why she had bought it in the first place. 
The next song began. It too began with a piano, but the violin joined in seconds after the song began… This song was so much slower than the last. All of the noted were smooth, and the piano let it’s notes ring out for a moment. In this song though, the roles were switched: The violin held the main melody, while the piano’s notes just added the chords in the background. The violinist was magnificent, and the pianist was perfect. They sounded like they had been playing for years, like this song had been made specifically for them. It was… beautiful.
There was one more pause after that song finished, then Octavia gasped as the next one began.
She had written this one with Vinyl a few weeks before. Back then the unicorn refused to play it. She had said that it was too slow. That it ‘had no beat’. But, here it was, playing on Vinyl’s record perfectly. Octavia hadn’t shown the song to anyone else, so…
“Vinyl,” She whispered, “Did you play all of this on your own?”
Octavia knew every single note that played. She heard it in her head a split second before it came. She saw her friend, her crush, playing it in a secluded room. She saw herself smiling as she listened.
Then it stopped, and Vinyl’s voice came out.
Crackle, crackle “Hey, Tavi!” Her cocky voice came out of the speaker. “It’s DJ-Pon3! … Ah-ahem.” She coughed into the microphone. “I was wondering… Oh! Just in case you wanted to know, the first song that played was called Far Away, the second was Moonlight, and… you didn’t name the last one.” There was muffled shouting coming from farther away, “Alright, Lyra! Uh… Tavi, I was wondering…”
“Would you like to go on a date with me?” Octavia spun around, and saw the real Vinyl Scratch standing there, with a raging blush on her cheeks.
Octavia just stood there, speechless, and Vinyl stuttered quickly. “I-I mean, if you don’t want to you don’t have to, bu-”
“I would love to,” Octavia whispered, her own blush visible. “I would love to o out with you Vinyl.”